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If you are looking to raise money for your company -- or keep up
at cocktail parties -- you should have a few facts about crowdfunding up your sleeve.

Crowdfunding is a way of raising money for a new venture by
soliciting small donations from many people online. The
biggest platforms in the industry are Kickstarter and Indiegogo.
In the last five years, crowdfunding has grown from a tool for
off-beat bands to raise money from fans for an album they can’t
afford to produce to a way for some really high tech inventors to
get access to capital for their new, innovative startups.

Consider the Pebble watch. It’s a
customizable, digital wristband that tells time, runs apps and
sinks with your smartphone. The founding team set out hoping
to raise $100,000 and raised more than $10 million on
Kickstarter.

Clarity, a San Francisco
entrepreneur-advisor matchmaking service, teamed up with
Column Five Media to build the
infographic below with a summary of what crowdfunding is, how
quickly it has grown as an industry in recent years and some
quick facts about the next generation of crowdfunding.